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"No," repeated Talvi firmly, letting out a sigh of relief. He was almost successful at masking how nervous he actually was. His body language made Elanor suspect he appreciated that she added "innocent" to the question. 

Curious. Hope I won't regret it, but keep your secrets for now, "Talvi".

  "That should do it for the moment. How will we get to the Seelie Court?"

This was almost exciting. Now that Lumi was with her, cruel dance parties left behind, food and water supplies secured, Elanor felt like herself again, like the person she once was. On the nights shared in intimate proximity with the "elephant", she used to wonder if she would ever get her curiosity, wit and perceptiveness back. She was living her life finding most joy in thinking, solving riddles, coming up with creative solutions to make up for not being rich enough, athletic enough or lucky enough. Being someone who once loved spending hours in her own mind, getting trapped there with depression was like getting on a submarine with nowhere to escape. She was hoping Iceland was the shore where she could leave the submarine, but maybe it was the faery world.

 "We should first leave the Summer lands, the border is not too far, so we can walk there. If we leave now, we might get there before noon. After that, we will use faery doors. You need glamour to look like one of the fae before we see the healer, so we have to make a stop at the Autumn Court on the way. There is a tailor who can help us," he winked at Elanor cheekily. 

"Got it, you can't have your wife look like she is a mere mortal with her boring mousy hair and a single earring," she teased back. 

Talvi laughed at that, finished his berry and stood up. 

"Do all humans fish for compliments so heavy-handedly?" he asked. "I need the healer to believe you are a fae, because he will not see deception coming. First thing we shall work on those round concepts of the ears of yours." 

"I do agree that when your ears are as long as a spearhead, it must make it easy to choose accessories for the day; you can just put all of them on at the same time," returned the human.

"Gods forbid one has physiology and fondness for some spark in life!" 

Lumi was marching ahead of them, followed by two of his favourite people, who could not stop bantering all the way through the jungles of enormous ferns, marigolds the size of a beach umbrella, and grass blades standing like a corn field wall. Slowly, trees took their usual size, passing by rabbits were no longer as big as a bus, and you could pluck daisies instead of climbing them.

Elanor plucked another item from her new pocket and, to her excitement, it was a bag of chocolate candies. She ignored all the puppy eyes made by Lumi, shared some with her faery friend, and made a quick work of the rest of them on the go.

When they reached a large river, Talvi left Elanor and Lumi to play fetch and approached the bank. Elanor was throwing a stick for the happy Samoyed, watching in the corner of her eye how the elf kneeled to the ground in the sand, took a small leather bag out of his inner pocket and dug into it, producing a small gemstone. He then threw it in the river and paused, waiting. Soon, a head emerged from the water. 

The river fae looked very different from humans; they had shiny purple skin, scales going down from their lower eyelids, coming down all the way to the neck and past where she could not see their body in the water. Mer's hair was dark black, or at least looked like it while wet, a net with shells, gems and other trinkets woven into it covered their head like an intricate veil. Their face was small, with a short forehead, and if they had a nose, it was not prominent. They smiled and said something to the merchant. They had no irises, only white pearly eyeballs. 

Talvi talked with the summoned fae a bit more and was given a small conch shell. He nodded gratefully, and the mer fae bowed before disappearing back into the depths of the dark river waters. Elanor watched her companion join them, and once he came close, he outstretched his hand, demonstrating the conch, looking very pleased. 

"This will get us really close to the town market. The garment store is not far!" he seemed excited, and Elanor was intrigued to see the mechanics of this magic conch. "Follow me."

Elanor and Lumi observed their guide stand closer to the water and blow in the narrow end of the conch. This did not create much of a sound, but after a few moments of Talvi screening the surface of the river, he exclaimed and pointed in a direction a bit further down the bank. His lean silhouette stood out against the massive dark body of water and looked exquisite, his long green curls flowing in the wind; he might have just stepped straight from the deck of a ship. 

When the party got closer, Elanor spotted what he was pointing at earlier: a whirlpool appeared on the surface of the river. 

"I'm afraid we have to dive in there," announced Talvi, looking absolutely unbothered by that fact.

"Lumi, come here and let me hold you tight," called Elanor anxiously. She was not usually afraid to swim; swimming is a part of the school program in Iceland, and there were so many natural geothermal pools around the country that you can practice all year round. Faery river, however, might be full of all kinds of perils. 

"Worry not, little Lark, would you like me to hold your hand and jump together?" offered the elf reassuringly. Elanor nodded, stepped closer and took his hand. She squeezed the leash of Lumi's harness in her other hand. "Alright, I'll count and we jump. One, two, three-"